Chapter 8 - AUDREY FILED FOR DIVORCE
Audrey filed three weeks later.
Julian asked her to wait.
Until his company stabilized.
Until the federal contract was resolved.
Until after his mother recovered emotionally.
Until after Valentine’s Day.
There was always another date beyond which honesty would supposedly become easier.
Audrey stopped waiting.
The Vienna house remained hers.
The loan against it never closed.
The appraisal was canceled.
Eleanor instructed the lender to remove her McLean house from the proposed package too.
That created a real problem.
Hale Strategic Interiors had nine days of comfortable operating cash.
Then less.
Julian sold two company vehicles.
Delayed his own salary.
Negotiated longer terms with three subcontractors.
His employees were paid.
The company did not collapse instantly.
It did hurt.
Six planned hires were canceled.
A satellite office lease was terminated.
One project manager left for a more stable competitor.
Julian blamed Audrey.
At first.
“You know six hundred thousand would fix this.”
Audrey replied:
“My house is not the same thing as six hundred thousand dollars.”
“You’re sitting on equity.”
“So is your mother.”
“She pulled out too.”
“Because you lied to both of us.”
Silence.
Then Julian said:
“You’ve turned her against me.”
Audrey almost laughed.
“You spent years turning us against each other.”
He hung up.
Eleanor’s response was stranger.
She began calling Audrey every few days.
Not to reconcile.
To compare history.
“Did Julian tell you I refused to come to your father’s memorial?”
“Yes.”
“I was never invited.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Another one.
“Did he tell you I said you were too old to wait to have children?”
“Yes.”
Eleanor inhaled.
“I said the opposite.”
Audrey stopped.
That one had hurt for years.
Eleanor continued:
“I told him never to pressure you because pregnancy was your decision.”
Audrey’s throat tightened.
“Why would he reverse that?”
Neither knew.
Not yet.
They stopped after forty minutes.
Audrey said:
“I can’t keep doing this every day.”
Eleanor sounded hurt.
Then caught herself.
“Okay.”
Improvement.
Audrey and Julian communicated through attorneys for property matters and directly only where necessary.
No children complicated the divorce.
No custody.
No pregnancy.
No shared business ownership.
That made the legal separation cleaner.
Emotionally, nothing was clean.
Audrey still woke some mornings expecting Julian beside her.
She still reached for her phone to send him jokes.
Then remembered his hand around her wrist.
Both realities existed.
She hated him some mornings.
May you like
Missed him other evenings.
Neither feeling changed the filing.
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